This is the Seattle Sports Blog bringing you up to date current events of Seattle Sports. This blog has several writers who will discuss several sports related topics but mainly focus on Seattle Sports.

Friday, September 23, 2011

comPETE?

By Kshell

This week the Seattle Seahawks(0-2) will finally play at home for the first time in the 2011 regular season. The Seahawks enter the second season of the Pete Carroll regime with little to no hope in their season opener. The reason for the lack of enthusiasm surrounding the Seahawks home opener is due to the Seahawks lack of offense. Last week the Seahawks were shutout 24-0 to the Pittsburgh Steelers while the previous week they lost 33-17 to the San Francisco 49ers. The Seahawks didn't look very good in the preseason either as their first string offense scored just three points against the opposing teams first string defense. This week Carroll is benching fourth pick overall in the 2009 draft Aaron Curry has he has been a complete bust for the Seahawks. For Carroll he is always preaching competition yet when it comes to one situation which has all the fans very confused. For whatever reason Carroll recently spoke highly of quarterback Tarvaris Jackson. He isn't opening up the quarterback position up for competition despite Jackson being an unproven quarterback. So that begs the question how can you claim you are about competition when the most important position on the team isn't about competition?

The decision to blindly support Tarvaris Jackson is a confusing one indeed. At first glance Jackson doesn't have bad numbers as he is completing 62.1% of his passes with only one interception in 66 pass attempts. Then when you dig deeper you see Jackson has only two touchdown passes with 356 yards passing. He is averaging 5.4 YPA and has been sacked 10 times for 68 yards. So in 76 called passing plays the Seahawks have just 288 yards(3.8 YPA) which is pathetic. The Seahawks have only 16 first downs through the air which shows that Jackson can't complete a pass longer than five yards. Jackson was shaky in Minnesota and was outplayed by Charlie Whitehurst in the preseason. For a man who preaches competition the fans in Seattle are left wondering what Carroll is thinking. Does Carroll have enough faith in his job that he can afford to tank a season for Andrew Luck? Something must be happening that the fans aren't seeing. The decision to not even have Jackson compete for the starting job seems ludacris. When the Seahawks signed Jackson he was immediately named the starting quarterback despite being benched for Gus Ferrotte in Minnesota. Jackson was a backup quarterback the last two seasons in Minnesota. I think that was Carroll's first mistake was not letting Charlie Whitehurst even compete for the starting job. The fact that mr.competition just handed the job to basically an unproven quarterback has the fans in Seattle left wondering if Carroll truly knows what he is doing.

What makes the move to stick with Jackson even more confusing is the fact that Whitehurst was Carroll's hand picked quarterback to take over for Matt Hasselbeck. Whitehurst didn't come cheap either as the Seahawks traded back in the second round 20 spots and then gave up their third round draft pick this season. Last year Whitehurst completed 57.6% of his passes for two touchdowns to three interceptions. His YPA was pretty low at 5.1 while being sacked just five times in 99 pass attempts. Whitehurst did play terrific in the Seahawks NFC West clinching win over the Rams a game in which was the only time he prepared as the starting quarterback all week long. Whitehurst was 20-36(61.1%) of his passes for 192 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. Whitehurst also ran for 30 yards while not being sacked once not to mention outplayed Jackson in the preseason. Whitehurst isn't the answer long term for the franchise but if Carroll was serious about winning this season he would start Whitehurst over Jackson. Whitehurst gives the team a chance to actually move the ball and score some points. Mr.Competition sticking with Jackson over his hand pick quarterback has to leave the fans wondering if Carroll truly knows something we don't.

In conclusion, I don't ever want to hear Carroll claim he is all about competition when he clearly isn't. The team obviously isn't trying to win this season or they would have brought Matt Hasselbeck back instead of the joke that is Jackson. Carroll is obviously tanking this season which is fine and all as you need to be terrible to be great. I just don't want Carroll to pretend this season isn't a rebuilding project and for the Seahawks to not charge the fans full price for such a terrible product. The Seahawks quarterback situation is a mess and if Carroll was serious about winning he would make a change. He would at the very least let Whitehurst compete for Jackson's job. Instead mr.competition will continue to go with Jackson over the quarterback that he gave up a few draft picks for. Mr.competition come to find out is all about competition unless it involves the most important position on the team. This is going to be a long year watching Jackson hold the ball forever as he makes Trent Edwards look like the mad bomber.